Is “Nuke the Fridge” the New “Jump the Shark”?
The Urban Dictionary has added an entry for “Nuke the Fridge”, a contemporary replacement for the slang term “Jumped the Shark”.
Jump the Shark is a reference to a scene in an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie literally jumps over a shark while water skiing. The scene was considered so preposterous, and is considered by many to signify the moment in time when the show became unappealing to its core audience.
The new term Nuke the Fridge is based on an event in the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Here is an explanation of the term from the online Urban Dictionary:
“Nuke the fridge is a colloquialism used to refer to the moment in a film series that is so incredible that it lessens the excitement of subsequent scenes that rely on more understated action or suspense, and it becomes apparent that a certain installment is not as good as a previous installments, due to ridiculous or low quality storylines, events or characters.
The term comes from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which, near the start of the movie, Harrison Ford’s character survives a nuclear detonation by climbing into a kitchen fridge, which is then blown hundreds of feet through the sky whilst the town disintegrates. He then emerges from the fridge with no apparent injury. Later in the movie, the audience is expected to fear for his safety in a normal fistfight.
Fans of the Indiana Jones series found the absurdity of this event in the film to be the best example of the lower quality of this installment in the series, and thus coined the phrase, “nuke the fridge”.
The phrase is also a reference to the phrase “jump the shark”, which has the same meaning, only applied to a television series instead of a film series.
This phrase is not in common use.
“Star Wars didn’t really nuke the fridge until Jar Jar Binks was introduced.”
“Peter Parker dancing around the bar in Spider-Man 3? Kinda nukes the fridge!”
“The Godfather: Part III nukes the fridge.”
“Gremlins 2 more or less nuked the fridge.”
What do you think? Pretty funny but I think “Jumped the Shark” rolls off the tongue easier.
via: FilmDrunk
The Force Is With…Bush?
Can President Bush possibly be more popular than Star Wars? Judging by last night's Deal or No Deal overall ratings: Yes.
A two-hour Chewbacca- and Carrie Fisher-graced episode of the NBC game show averaged 9.9 million viewers, per Nielsen Media Research estimates.
Last week, a President Bush-graced episode averaged 10.1 million for a 21st place finish in the Nielsen weekly rankings released today.
Bush, 61, is the widely unpopular commander in chief, who pulled a 69 percent disapproval rating in the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, per PollingReport.com.
Star Wars, 30, is the widely popular movie that spawned a multibillion-dollar franchise.
If it makes Chewbacca, Fisher and the rest of the George Lucas gang feel better, last night's Deal did bettermuch betteramong all-important 18- to 49-year-old viewers than last week's, pulling an estimated 2.9 rating, compared to the barely there 2.0 generated by the Bush cameo.
Also, it was no Star Wars Holiday Special. Which is a blessing in itself.
Here are other ratings highlights from the TV week ended Sunday:
- Last year's May sweeps period began with 26 shows averaging at least 10 million viewers, and five shows cracking 20 million. This year's began with 21 shows hitting 10 million, and only twoTuesday's American Idol (first place, 24.7 million) and Wednesday's American Idol (second place, 23.2 million)surpassing 20 million.
- According to CBS, CBS killed on Thursday with Survivor: Micronesia (12th place, 12.9 million), CSI (fifth place, 17 million) and Without a Trace (10th place, 13.5 million).
- According to ABC, CBS keeled over on Thursday, losing the battle for young adults to its returning series Grey's Anatomy (sixth place, 16.4 million) and Lost (14th place, 12.1 million), except at 8 p.m., where Ugly Betty (32nd place, 8.5 million) got beat by Survivor, and left ABC resorting to CW-esque turns of phrase (i.e., "Betty ranked a strong #1 in the hour among its core audience of women 18-34.")
- NBC's The Office (40th place, 7.7 million) liked it better when it didn't have to go up against both CSI and Grey's Anatomy.
- The second hour of USA's WWE Monday Night Raw (5.1 million) was cable's top scripted show; MTV's The Hills (3.8 million) was its No. 1 unscripted show.
- Take heart, Hannah Montana, scandal hasn't killed Nick's Zoey 101 (3.6 million).
- This is how things are at the CW: The network was excited that the returning Gossip Girl (111th place, 2.5 million) posted its "third best" numbers in adults 18-34 and the aforementioned women 18-34.
- Not to douse Gossip Girl's third-hottest hot streak, but Nick's SpongeBob SquarePants averaged more viewers in the 8 p.m. Monday hour (2.7 million) than the CW drama.
- The CW's America's Top Model (84th place, 4.4 million) hit a season high in viewers, no qualifiers required.
- The season finale of the CW's noble Girlicious quest was so ginormous (112th place, 2.3 milliona season high), the show almost outdrew Monday's installment of Yo Amo Juan Querendon on Univision (110th place, 2.5 million).
- TV's highest-rated comedy among prized 18- to 49-year-old trend-setters was CBS' old-school, three-camera Two and a Half Men, which placed a lofty sixth in the demo, and 11th overall (12.9 million).
- There must be a lot of old young souls watching NBC's ER (41st place, 7.5 million), still a top 25 18-to-49 show after all these centuries.
- In the mainstream media's beloved network news race, NBC Nightly News' Flomax ads averaged 8 million viewers to ABC's 7.8 million and poor Katie Couric's 5.3 million.
Overall, CBS's scripted shows trumped Fox's Idol, with the Eyeball emerging as the week's most ogled network, averaging 9.2 million viewers.
Fox took second in viewers (9.16 million), and first in the 18-49 demo.
ABC (9.1 million) was third in viewers, and second in the demo. NBC (7 million) was NBC.
In cable, USA (2.7 million) was the top prime-time network, followed by TNT (2.7 million) and Disney (2 million).
Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
- American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 24.7 million viewers
- American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 23.2 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 18 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17.97 million viewers
- CSI, CBS, 17 million viewers
- Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 16.4 million viewers
- Desperate Housewives, ABC, 16.4 million viewers
- CSI: Miami, CBS, 14.4 million viewers
- NCIS, CBS, 14.2 million viewers
- Without a Trace, CBS, 13.5 million viewers
Why Did the Road End? What's Next for Betty and Grey's? ABC Boss Speaks
Just got back from a chat session with ABC's big cheese Steve McPherson, where we dug into today's fall schedule announcement, what lies ahead for some of our favorite shows and stars—and why he didn't bring back two fan favorites.
Here's what we learned:
Scrubs Is Moving to ABC (Duh): In the reveal of what is perhaps the worst-kept secret in the Industry, McPherson announced that ABC will air 18 episodes of Scrubs this fall. "Given the fact that it's been moved 17 times and still doing better than any other NBC comedy on Thursday than The Office…We think it's really a great addition for us." Holler.
Ted on How I Met Your Mother Is Screwed: McPherson confirms that Sarah Chalke is most definitely back on Scrubs for the new season on ABC. Full-time. Stelllllaaaa! If she is the mother, Ted's gonna have to wait.
Men in Trees and October Road Are Gone: On behalf of all you heartbroken fans (I feel your pain), I asked McPherson if this call was made purely from a ratings standpoint. "It was, yeah," he replied. "It was a really hard decision. I think both shows were incredibly well done and we have a fantastic relationship with (Men in Trees creator) Jenny Bicks. We're hoping to do some great things with her. But even when we gave it a pretty decent run on Thursday, I would have loved to see it pop."
As for October Road: "It was like the little engine that could. It was a pilot that was picked up late and the series was picked up late. It was a terrific show—it just had a very, very small but dedicated core audience. [Road producers] [Josh] Applebaum] and [Andre] Nemick and [Scott] Rosenberg are going to work on our new drama Life on Mars and have some great ideas about this version. So we love the people, but it's just unfortunate that we couldn't find the kind of audience that would make it worth keeping."
McPherson Calls the New Fall Schedule "Incredibly Stable": With only one new drama and two new unscripted series, there isn't much change at all. Still, he adds that there are 17 pilots still in development for midseason, so clearly, thanks to the strike, there wasn't a lot of grooming time this year.
Life on Mars Looks Pretty Awesome: Cherry-picked as the only new scripted series coming to ABC this fall, this British import about a cop who gets sent back to 1973 actually looks pretty engaging. (They showed a clip.) Jason O'Mara (most recently McDreamy and Meredith's latest brain-tumor patient on Grey's) stars and the series is produced by David E. Kelley and the brain trust behind October Road (Applebaum and friends). It will air after Grey's on Thursday nights at 10.
Also Coming to ABC: Opportunity Knocks, a game show from Ashton Kutcher that McPherson describes as "Extreme Home Makeover meets Millionaire" (the show comes to your house with a truckload of prizes and asks you to answer trivia about your own family and community) and an untitled Ashton Kutcher-Tyra Banks reality show, which is "a beauty pageant like you haven't seen before" that McPherson says "we are keeping under wraps for now at their request."
Ugly Betty Is Most Definitely Moving to NYC: Says McPherson, "The pilot was shot in New York. The show is based in New York. And the studio made the decision that given the current climate in New York, it made a lot of sense to move it back. We're excited from a production standpoint to have that real New York quality, because as much as people try to cheat New York, it's really hard to do so. So I think it's sort of funny that people are taking issue with the fact that it's cheaper to do a show in New York about New York." McPherson also says all castmembers will be on board, but that Rebecca Romijn has "left the show." When asked why, he says Rebecca's run was always supposed to be a limited engagement and now that run is over. (Something tells me that's news to Rebecca.)
Ugly Betty Is Getting Back to Betty: "Silvio [Horta] is very smart to do what he's doing. I think that on Ugly Betty, there was sort of a flight of fancy that was going on there and it was funny, but I think it got away from the core that really is the heart of the show. And some of the episodes at the end of this year have gotten back to that." Also, LiLo will be back. "[Lindsay Lohan] is going to do more episodes next year. I don't know that the New York move will affect that, but she is doing more than one episode next season."
Is Edie Gone from Desperate Housewives? When asked if Nicollette Sheridan will return, McPherson initially gives a firm "Yes." When pressed for clarification, given that Marc Cherry was just quoted as saying that's the last we're gonna see of her for years, McPherson just smiles and says "Maybe." Hmmm…
Pushing Daisies Love: My beloved Pushing Daisies, which will back next season in its old time slot, is still all about the love. The ABC new-season video they showed us featured Lee Pace saying, "I've fallen in love with Anna Friel," and how that's a good thing because they can't touch on the series so they really have to sell the love through their eyes. Awww…
Grey's Anatomy Is Planning Something Big: "Grey's has got a big idea for next year that Shonda's getting ready to launch on people," says McPherson, but wouldn't go into further detail (shocker). "But the other shows we feel like are firing on really good waves, so there's no big kind of shift." (Read into that transition what you will.)
Why Eli Stone Got the Pickup (Hurrah!): "In comparison to the big shows we have it's not particularly expensive," McPherson explains. "And we just felt like it had a very tough launch amid the strike without our original programming to really launch it. And creatively we felt like it grew from the beginning to the end of the first 13, so we really feel like it's got a big up side…We also think we have a better lead-in for it with Dancing With the Stars." As for the big twist in the 13th ep, McPherson says: "That was always Greg Berlanti's design of where it would go."
Lost Time Slot for Midseason? TBD, according to McPherson. "At this point, we still like this 10 p.m. on Thursday, and we could move Life on Mars at that point. But it's also been a great 9 p.m. performer and 8 p.m. performer, so I think quite honestly we have to see how the fall plays out."
Questions? Rants? Raves? Post them below…
Stump the King: Jimmy Fallon
Now that Jimmy Fallon has been officially announced to replace Conan O’ Brien I have a lot of questions. Will the show still tape in New York? Will he have a sidekick? Who will be his band leader? Will he constantly laugh at himself like he used to on Saturday Night Live?
I have always found him to be a very funny guy but when Fallon sat in for Dave Letterman, I have to admit, I was not impressed. He seemed to constantly be fighting with the need to be personable with his guests while still trying to be his ultra-hip self.
Of course, I’m more than willing to give Fallon the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure we all remember Conan’s first few seasons and how difficult they were to watch but now his show is more than deserving of the Emmys it has won.
So, I suppose the question isn’t whether or not Fallon will be a decent host but how long it will take him to find his groove.
I’m also curious as to who his core audience will be. In the SNL days, he was clearly very popular with teenage girls and gay men. However, most of those girls have grown up now and the men have moved on Seth Myers, so who will be the loyal viewer of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon?
In any event I will be watching. at least, at first. Time will tell whether I continue or start recording Ferguson instead.
Now for today’s trivia question…
Who won the Grammy for best comedy album the year Jimmy Fallon was nominated?
Congratulations Stephen F.
Robin Williams is the correct answer.